Toolfor placing siding on a building



July 7, 1970 R. L. CROMLEIGH TOOL FOR PLACING SIDING ON A BUILDING Filed July 16., 1968 INVENTOR ROBERT Z O OMZI Gil ATTOFJLY United States Patent O 3,518,770 TOOL FOR PLACING SIDING ON A BUILDING Robert L. Cromleigh, 130 High St., Duncannon, Pa. 17020 Filed July 16, 1968, Ser. No. 745,220

Int. Cl. Glb 3/30 U.S. Cl. 33-187 Clams ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A tool to start the placing of metal siding on a building to make sure that the starting strip and the first strips of siding are perfectly horizontal comprising at least one elongated support with quick fastening means to secure it to the building wall, a leveling bubble for quick adjustment to its horizontal position, and movable hook elements to hold the starting strips in selected horizontal position until secured in place and to subsequently hold the first strips of siding until secured in place. It is usual in applying metal siding to a building to Stretch a line along the side of the building using a line level hooked on the line to determine when the line is level. The line,

even when securely held at its ends is subject to deflection and it is difl'lcult to place the starting strip, which is flexible to a degree, in exacthorizontal position as even a slight sag of the line or of the strip will spoil the accuracy with which the strip is positioned.

The conventional and known methods of placing the starting strip and the first line of siding being both time consuming and often inaccurate, the tool of the present invention has been devised to both reduce the time necessary to place the two strips in place, and to eliminate the possibility of inaccuracy.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tool adapted to facilitate and expedite rapid and accurate placng of the starting strip, and the first row of siding around a building.

Other and further objects and advantages will appear from the following specification taken with the accompanying drawing in which like characters of reference refer to similar parts in the several views and in which:

FIG. 1 is a general perspective View of the device;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary section of an element of the device on a section at 2-2 of FIG. 3 supporting a starting strip;

FIG. 3 is a section taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2, showing a fragment only of the starting strip;

FIG. 4 is an end View looking to the left at FIG. 1 with a strip of siding in place;

FIG. 5 is an elevation of FIG. 4 with only a short portion of the rail and the siding shown.

In recent years the use of metal siding for buildings has become popular, for one reason because it can be prepared with a colored coating on it that will never require repainting. Such siding is not only used on new buildings, but often on older buildings, being placed over whatever exteror finish the building may have, and regardless of possible Settlement of the building, it is, of course, desirable that the siding be horizontal.

At the lowermost level of the area to be covered by the siding, whether at the foundation, top or over a porch roof or elsewhere, a starting strip, as seen in section at in FIGS. 2 and 4, is secured to the building.

In order to be sure that this strip is horizontal an elongated rail, shown as an extrusion 11 is secured to the building above the desired location of strip 10. To position rail 11, a distance is measured upwardly from the desired location of the bottom of strip 10 at, say, a corner of the building. A securing element 12 permanently mounted in rail 11 is driven into the building to secure one end of the rail 11 in place. The other end of rail 11 is then raised and lowered until the rail is horizontal as indcated by leveling bubble device 13. The securing means 12a is driven into the building.

Securing elements 12 and 121: are identical and carry any conventional means, not shown, to prevent withdrawal from the rail 11. Apertures in the rail and a conventional nail could be used in lieu of securing means 12 and l2a, but it is preferred that the securing means be mounted as shown with a spring 14, or 14a acting between the rail 11 and head elements 15 and 15a to normally hold these nail-like securing means in withdrawn position.

An additional securing means 16 having screw threads is preferably provided as screw threads have far more strength against inadvertent withdrawal than do the naillike means 12, 12a. This means 16` is preferably also provided with a spring to normally hold it in withdrawn position and a handle 16 is provided by which the screw element 16 may be rotated.

With the rail 11 in place a second similar rail 11a may be placed in position using an alignment block 11b to locate the first end of the rail lla. Rail 11a is identical to rail 11 and the procedures of leveling this rail are the same as for leveling rail 11. An alignment block of L shape may be used to position one of the rails 11, or lla on a wall of the building ntersecting a wall on which a rail is already mounted.

A hook 17 is provided that has a wheel 18 mounted at its top end to ride along edge 19 of rail 11. The bottom end of hook 18 is the hoop portion proper which, while shown as turned up at its end, may be of simple L shape.

A second hook 20 is provided that has not only the function of supporting starting strip 10 but, is used later to support the first row of siding as seen in F IGS. 4 and 5.

The upper end of element 20 may be a simple fold to hook at 20 The lower end of element 20 is turned inwardly as at 21, and preferably is provided with an upwardly extending latch element 22 that may be released by downward movement against the pull of a spring 23. Above the lower end of element 20 at the appropriate distance a second hook portion 24 is provided with an upwardly extendng latch or tongue 25 to engage the conventional hook-like bead 26 of the siding 27 as seen in FIGS. 4 and 5. It will be noticed in FIG. 4 that when the siding 27 is supported by latch 25 the hook portions 21, 22 do not hook under the lower inwardly turned portion of the siding at 28 since this hook 21, 22 having accurately positioned the starting strip 10, is not long enough to support the siding from the bottom edge.

In using the device, the rail or rails 11, 11a, etc. are placed iu horizontal position on the building as explained above and a starting strip is supported by hooks 17 and 20. The starting strip 10 is then secured to the building starting at the end supported by hook 17. This hook is then moved along the edge 19 of rail 11 to accurately position the starting strip 10 progressively along its length. When the hook 17 approaches the hook 20 the latter is removed by depressing latch 22 against spring 23 and hook 17 continues to be moved as the starting strip is secured until the hook 17 finally comes to the end of that length of starting strip. Successive lengths of starting strip are mounted as required by repeating the procedure.

With the starting strip in place the first length of siding is placed in position its lower hook-like edge 28 hooked under the conventional hook like bead of the starting strip 10 as seen in FIG. 4. Hook 20 is placed about mid length of the siding and latch 25 depressed by stretching spring 2511, is moved to position under the hook like bead at the top of the siding. When the latch is released it moves up to lift the length of siding to firnly press the hook part 28 of the siding against hook like head of starting strip 10. It will be noted that the vertical width of the siding renders it rigid so that only one hook 20 is ordinarily required. The siding is then provided with insulation 29, and, starting at one end, the siding with its underlying insulation is secured to the building.

After the `first strip of siding is installed, the siding of the house progresses in the conventional manner. Successive strips of siding do not need to be supported from above, as the first strip does, as the hook-like part 2'8 of the successive strips of siding, and the hook-like bead near the top of each strip of siding are so configured that the hook driven up under the hook-like bead interlock and support the siding being installed.

Although I have disclosed the preferred embodiment of my invention, modifications and adaptations of the disclosed structure are intended to be Secured by these Letters Patent within the scope of the following claims:

I claim:

1. A starting tool for placing metallic siding on a building, said tool including at least one elongated rail element, means to secure said rail element on a building in horizontal position a selected distance above the desired level of the lowermost line of siding, two hooks to be mounted on said rail each said hook extending downwardly from said rail element and having a hook portion at its lower extremity positioned to support a starting strip in its position at the said desired level, one of said hooks being provided at its top portion with a wheel engageable with said rail element to facilitate moving said hook progressively along said rail, the other said hook having a hook portion at its lower end provided with a releasing latch, and also having an upper hook element upwardly of said lower end adapted to support a length of metallic siding with its lower edge hooked '4 to said starting strip, and having latch means to release said upper hook element for said siding.

2. The tool of claim 1 having two similar elongated rail elements each said rail element being provided with an end socket, and an alignment means engageable with said sockets when said rail elements are positioned end to en-d to position the engaged ends of said rails at the same level.

3. The tool of claim `1 said means to secure said rail element to said building includes at least one nail-like element mounted in an aperture in said rail element and means to prevent removal of said nail like elementtherefrom.

4. The tool of claim 1 n which a screw threaded element is mounted in an aperture in `said rail element adapted to move from a retracted position where the threaded portion is concealed with said rail element, to an extended position embedded in a building or the like, and key means on said screw threaded element on its end remote from said screw threads.

5. The tool of claim 1 in which a leveling bubble device is mounted on said rail element to facilitate mounting said rail element in horizontal position on a building or the like.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 710,?.81 9/ 1902 Leek 33-188 X 1,989,141 1/ 1935 Leonard 33-18& 2,446,950 8/ 1948 Parkhurst 33-187 2,891,318 6/ 1959 Harrison et al. 38-188 WILLIAM D. MARTIN, JR., Primary Examiner 

